To understand the future of artificial intelligence, we must be willing to look through more than one window. We need to listen carefully to China, to the diverse nations of BRICS, and to peoples whose voices have too often been excluded from decisions that shape our collective future.
I approach this as an Indigenous Elder, guided by the teachings of the Sacred Tree and our Four Worlds Sixteen Principles for building a sustainable, harmonious, and prosperous world. These teachings call us to investigate independently, with open minds, listen with humility, and measure development by the well-being it brings to the whole circle of life.
China’s stated approach to AI deserves thoughtful consideration. Its Global AI Governance Initiative emphasizes human well-being, international cooperation, wider access for developing countries, and the responsibility to place ethics and safety alongside innovation. It also calls for human control, privacy protections, and accountability. We should take these commitments seriously and assess them by how they are implemented.
The BRICS discussion broadens this circle. Its 2025 AI governance agenda emphasized inclusive development, infrastructure, local skills, and protection against risks. For countries seeking greater participation in the digital economy, the question is who will have the capacity to shape their own future.
From my perspective, this brings us directly to a fundamental teaching: the people must be active participants in their own development.
Making AI available is only a beginning. Meaningful participation requires education, affordable access, local capacity, and a real voice in decisions. For Indigenous Peoples, it must also include authority over our knowledge, languages, and cultural heritage. Our sacred teachings carry responsibilities that cannot be separated from the communities entrusted with them.
Our Four Worlds Guiding Sixteen Principles remind us that development comes from within. Technology can support that process when it strengthens people’s ability to learn, heal, organize, and act upon their own vision. A community that becomes dependent on distant systems it cannot question or influence has good reason to ask whose development it is actually serving.
No vision, no development. What vision guides our investment in AI? Can we imagine its success in terms of healthier children, restored waters, stronger communities, meaningful livelihoods, and greater understanding across languages and cultures? These outcomes must become part of how we define and measure progress.
The Sacred Tree also reminds us that the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical dimensions of life belong together. Technological power requires a corresponding growth in moral responsibility. Truthfulness, compassion, justice, and respect must take practical form in how systems are designed, how information is used, and how harms are repaired. At the sametime, we need to walk the spiritual path with practical feet.
China’s emphasis on both cooperation and security raises a question every nation must face: how do we share the benefits of powerful technologies while protecting people from their misuse? Four Worlds’ measure of security includes the dignity of the individual, the freedom to ask questions, the protection of cultural identity, and the well-being of future generations. Safeguards must themselves be accountable to those they affect.
I would apply this same measure to China, every BRICS nation, the United States, and every technology company. Promises gain credibility through conduct. Cooperation becomes meaningful when partners share decision-making and benefits. Prosperity becomes sustainable when its costs are not passed to vulnerable peoples or to Mother Earth.
We must be willing to learn from one another without surrendering our discernment. China and the BRICS nations deserve a place in this conversation, alongside Indigenous Peoples and communities everywhere.
The maturity of our relationships must match the maturity of our technology. This is our responsibility: to align our growing powers with the wisdom, love, and justice needed to serve all members of our human family.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — All My Relations.** **An Indigenous reflection on China, BRICS, and our shared human future
To understand the future of artificial intelligence, we must be willing to look through more than one window. We need to listen carefully to China, to the diverse nations of BRICS, and to peoples whose voices have too often been excluded from decisions that shape our collective future.
I approach this as an Indigenous Elder, guided by the teachings of the Sacred Tree and our Four Worlds Sixteen Principles for building a sustainable, harmonious, and prosperous world. These teachings call us to investigate independently, with open minds, listen with humility, and measure development by the well-being it brings to the whole circle of life.
China’s stated approach to AI deserves thoughtful consideration. Its Global AI Governance Initiative emphasizes human well-being, international cooperation, wider access for developing countries, and the responsibility to place ethics and safety alongside innovation. It also calls for human control, privacy protections, and accountability. We should take these commitments seriously and assess them by how they are implemented.
The BRICS discussion broadens this circle. Its 2025 AI governance agenda emphasized inclusive development, infrastructure, local skills, and protection against risks. For countries seeking greater participation in the digital economy, the question is who will have the capacity to shape their own future.
From my perspective, this brings us directly to a fundamental teaching: the people must be active participants in their own development.
Making AI available is only a beginning. Meaningful participation requires education, affordable access, local capacity, and a real voice in decisions. For Indigenous Peoples, it must also include authority over our knowledge, languages, and cultural heritage. Our sacred teachings carry responsibilities that cannot be separated from the communities entrusted with them.
Our Four Worlds Guiding Sixteen Principles remind us that development comes from within. Technology can support that process when it strengthens people’s ability to learn, heal, organize, and act upon their own vision. A community that becomes dependent on distant systems it cannot question or influence has good reason to ask whose development it is actually serving.
No vision, no development. What vision guides our investment in AI? Can we imagine its success in terms of healthier children, restored waters, stronger communities, meaningful livelihoods, and greater understanding across languages and cultures? These outcomes must become part of how we define and measure progress.
The Sacred Tree also reminds us that the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical dimensions of life belong together. Technological power requires a corresponding growth in moral responsibility. Truthfulness, compassion, justice, and respect must take practical form in how systems are designed, how information is used, and how harms are repaired. At the sametime, we need to walk the spiritual path with practical feet.
China’s emphasis on both cooperation and security raises a question every nation must face: how do we share the benefits of powerful technologies while protecting people from their misuse? Four Worlds’ measure of security includes the dignity of the individual, the freedom to ask questions, the protection of cultural identity, and the well-being of future generations. Safeguards must themselves be accountable to those they affect.
I would apply this same measure to China, every BRICS nation, the United States, and every technology company. Promises gain credibility through conduct. Cooperation becomes meaningful when partners share decision-making and benefits. Prosperity becomes sustainable when its costs are not passed to vulnerable peoples or to Mother Earth.
We must be willing to learn from one another without surrendering our discernment. China and the BRICS nations deserve a place in this conversation, alongside Indigenous Peoples and communities everywhere.
The maturity of our relationships must match the maturity of our technology. This is our responsibility: to align our growing powers with the wisdom, love, and justice needed to serve all members of our human family.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — All My Relations.